Free Due Diligence: A Thriller by Jonathan Rush Page B

it.”
    “Cheers,” said Emmy, and raised the glass to her lips.
    Rob put his glass down. He glanced at Emmy.
    “What?” she said.
    “Nothing.” He leaned over and kissed her.
    Rob knew he was lucky to have Emmy. Being with her had always felt easy. But recently there was something between them. When he went to Cornell for his MBA he had already been with Emmy for a year. He had subletted his own apartment and would stay with her whenever he came to the city, even though it would probably have been natural to give up his apartment entirely. It would have been even more natural to give it up and move in with her after he finished his MBA and came back to New York to start his job at Dyson Whitney. His apartment was too small for two and Emmy had a nice place in one of the old brownstones on the Upper West Side. It belonged to her grandmother, who lived in Florida. He was pretty sure Emmy was expecting him to move in, but he never opened the question and somehow they never really had a proper discussion about it. A couple of times he mentioned something about how it would be kind of odd for him to live in a place that belonged to her grandmother, and Emmy said she didn’t see why it was so odd, but she never pushed the conversation to where it could have gone, and neither did he. He wasn’t sure if it was only him who was avoiding it or if it was Emmy as well. Either way, he had always been relieved whenever they got close and it didn’t go the distance. Because when you talk about moving in with someone, you’ve got to talk about what it means. Where it’s heading. The big question. And he didn’t know if he was ready for that.
    So when he had come back to the city a couple of months earlier, he had ended up moving back to his own place on West Thirty-ninth Street. In name, at least, because he spent about 90 percent of his time at Emmy’s anyway. But that wasn’t the same as having talked about it. And so now there was this thing, this unresolved question waiting to be dealt with, where it had never felt that there was anything between them before. Most of the time everything was still great, but sometimes, when Rob looked at her, he caught a certain look in Emmy’s eye and he was sure she was thinking about it. He had evaded it, and she knew he had. He knew the frustration was building up in her. It was going to come out. It had to, at some point. Probably when he least wanted it to.
    He just wished it weren’t there. If there hadn’t been this thing between them, everything with Emmy would have been perfect.
    Greg and Louise arrived. Ercole fussed over them. Greg gave Emmy a kiss and Louise turned a cheek to Rob. Ercole was pouring them each a glass of wine.
    “Did you come in the car?” asked Rob.
    “Cab,” said Louise brusquely.
    Greg had just gotten a new car, a blue BMW Z4. For the past few weeks he hadn’t talked about anything else. Louise refused to let him drive her, as if to take all the pleasure out of it for him.
    “Parking,” said Greg, shaking his head and putting on a smile. “It’s a killer.”
    “I bet it is,” said Rob.
    “So you had to blow us off Sunday night.” Greg lifted his glass. “Cheers to that! Looks like we’ve lost you to your new job.”
    Rob laughed. “Cheers.”
    “What was happening on Sunday? Better be good.”
    “It’s just this deal I’m working on.”
    “Just this deal,” said Greg. “Listen to him. How long have you been waiting to be able to say that, huh? How long?”
    Rob grinned.
    “You guys should feel honored,” said Emmy. “This is the first night off he’s had in a week.”
    “Sure is a privilege,” muttered Louise.
    “Hey, baby, come on,” murmured Greg.
    Louise looked away.
    Ercole came back with menus. Rob always had the same thing, spaghetti with meatballs followed by the veal scaloppine. Greg always started with the marinara.
    “So, what’s this deal that’s keeping you so busy?” asked Greg after they’d ordered.
    “I